Traumatized Writer's Hell-Cruise With Ralph Nader
One brave man had the courage to write in theNew York Timesthis weekend about some of the darkest, most painful days of his life. Days that would make a few waterboardings or even the Full Lieberman seem like child's play. He was literally cast out upon the waters, trapped on a vessel with only miles of icy Alaskan sea all around, with no respite from the unending torment of Ralph Nader, Richard Dreyfuss, and Katrina vanden Heuvel on what one fellow captive described as "an S.D.S. reunion on the Love Boat."
Henry Alford was one of 460 victims helplessly trapped on board a cruise sponsored byThe Nation, some sort of political magazine for old people.
I saw one Nation reader, apparently unfinished with his conversation with Ralph Nader in the hallway, follow Mr. Nader into the men's room; I overhead another cruiser express disappointment to his wife that the casino's roulette "has a double zero, thus giving a 5 percent advantage to the house in the game that already has the worst odds for the player."
To be fair, Alford and the other prisoners did enjoy the occasional shore leave, in which he ate reindeer hotdogs. Most of the time, though, he was forced to pickle in a rank stew of leftist piety and dorky magical tricks.
The Love Boat for Policy Wonks [New York Times]